I really can't get over how massive the jump in story quality is between FF3 and FF4.
FF3 barely HAD a story and 0 characters. It tried hard right at the end, but it just never got there.
FF2 had some story and characters to it, but 4 is still 100 times more sophisticated in both of those respects.
And of course FF1 basically had neither, but we can forgive it for being first.